Good morning! Today's Bento Box artist is another listener-sourced request, Osaka Monaurail!
Formed in Osaka in 1992 and now base in Tokyo, all of the members of Osaka Monaurail were from the same Jazz society at Osaka University (Osaka, Japan) and named after the Funk classic, "It is The J.B.s Monaurail" by the J.B.s (misspelling intentional), which was James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s.
The band originally featured more than 20 people, including several horn players, but soon the band was cut down to a 13-piece group. After a couple of university gigs, they started playing local bars & nightclubs in Osaka around 1994-1995.
Signed to RD Records in 1999, OM released their first album “What it is – What it was” (2000) followed by nine albums: three on RD Records (signed until 2005); four albums on P-Vine Records (signed 2006-2009), "State Of The World" on King Records (2011), and their latest, “Riptide, was released on Shout! Records. In Europe, the last four albums are available on Unique Records (Dusseldorf, Germany).
Commenting on its earlier days, bandleader Nakata recalls, "I was 19. We were having fun playing/learning Jazz. Our team was known as the best university/college band in playing Count Basie tunes. I was a trumpet player. But, I dropped out because I could not hit high notes. I finally gave up on trumpet and decided to do what I had been struggling to do ever since I was 16, which was to start a Funk band."